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Monday, September 29, 2014

Fix It! Grammar Review #hsreviews

There are so many companies that offer homeschool materials it can be overwhelming at times. Most companies have some wonderful items, but they also have things that don't work for us. When it comes to the Institute for Excellence in Writing everything we have used from them has been a perfect fit for my family including our newest review item Fix It! Grammar.

In Fix It! Grammar: The Nose Tree (Student Book 1) grammar is taught in context with re petition to ensure mastery. The course includes 33 weeks of daily passages, vocabulary words, and a Grammar Glossary. There are 4 tasks to complete each weekly session:

Learn it ~ Each Grammar concept is taught.

Fix it ~ There are four passages (one for each day) that the student finds the error and marks them. Vocabulary words are in bold print within the sentence.

Discuss it ~ The teacher will discuss the grammar topic and help the student mark the passage for day one of each week.

Copy it ~ Each day the student copies the daily passage into a notebook making all the marked corrections.

In The Nose Tree students will learn the rules for capitalization and indentation. They will learn to identify nouns, articles, pronouns, verbs, helping verbs, adjectives, -ly adverbs, prepostions, coordinating conjunctins, clause starters. They will use end marks, quotation marks, and apostrophes to show ownership and in contractions. Students will also work on choosing correct homophones when given a choice.

In the back of the Student Book are also grammar rule cards. The cards include the rules on one side and examples on the other. They are printed on cardstock and include dotted lines to make it easy to cut out. The Glossary includes a full sheet for each concept that is included in the book. It contains definitions, and samples of each one.

The Teacher's Manuel includes each page that is in the student book along with teacher notes in the side bar. The Grammar Glossary is in the back, but there are no Grammar Cards. This book can be purchased for $19.00 and includes downloads for the owner to use with their immediate family only. The downloads include the Fix-It! Student Book 1 e-book, Mastery Learning e-audio, and But....But....But....What About Grammar? e-audio.

I chose to start with The Nose Tree Student Book 1 because that was recommended and I figured that way I could use it with all three of my girls. The downloads were very easy to work with and I printed off extra copies for my other girls. Alaina is 9 and she has been using the product as indicated. She would mark her selected passage, define her vocabulary and then copy it to a notebook daily. Amber (13) & Delaney (12) thought they wanted to do more each day & they have actually been completing a weeks worth of work at one time each day.

The Teacher's Manuel is very easy to use. The Teacher notes are in the side bar and indicates when to add a new Grammar Card, when to listen to the audio, and the definitions to the vocabulary words. There are also interesting facts such as why we have straight marks when quotations marks are actually "curly".

Fix It! Grammar has been very easy to use & all three of my girls have been enjoying it. It is intended to be light hearted so students do not dread using it & my kids have not grumbled about working on it at all. They also think it is fun that all the selected passages form a story. When they are finished with their copy work they will have actually rewritten the whole thing. This is going to be a mainstay in our house and I will be ordering the next book for Amber & Delaney for the second semester of this school year.

Member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew received different levels and you can read those reviews at the Crew Blog.